Hello allI've used Inkscape on and off for a few years but never ran into this aggravating problem before.I created a MS Word document with Cambria font Greek letters. I copy and paste letters from that doc into a new SVG file. I make sure it has a stroke line, no fill before choosing Object to Path. The letter will not convert. In Node view I can see plenty of nodes and they can be edited like any other object. It also appears there is an "invisible" object that's along for the ride, but I can't get to it. Can anyone tell me what's going on?Phi example.svg(4.65 kB - downloaded 6 times)

When you use Path/Object to Path on fonts in recent versions of Inkscape, each letter of text is a separate Path and then all of the converted text will be put into one Group. Unless you want to use the letters separately, it is faster to select your text and then use Path/Union. This will convert it all to one Path with no Groups.

I don't know what/where the invisible object is, but you can delete it by selecting all (Control A) and then hold shift and click on the text to deselect it (or select your text and then use Edit/Invert selection). That should leave you with only the extra stuff selected and you can then delete it.

There are 2 or 3 extra, but empty text objects. (I'm not sure how it might have happened in your file, but it does happen sometimes.) You can either select them one at a time (by using the Tab key) and delete them. Or what Heather suggested would work. Or just ignore them.

I'm not sure what you mean about it won't convert. If it has nodes, it's a path!

The reason you might be having trouble is because when you convert text to path using Object to Path, it puts the result in a group. And if you're sending the group to the cutter, that probably won't work. If you Ungroup it, it will be a normal path. (Or as Heather mentioned, if you you select the text and do Path menu > Union (instead of Object to Path), it converts it to a path without putting it in a group.)

Thank you for responding so quickly to my query! I couldn't figure out a way to type the characters directly into Inkscape, as they are Unicode characters and that was taking me down another rabbit holeEnded up selecting characters from the character map, pasting into a new Word doc, then copying back to my blank page. No invisible objects this timeThank you again!

-- Copy it from Character Map. -- Open Inkscape -- Enable the Text tool and click once on the canvas -- Either click the Paste button or Ctrl V -- Path menu > Union (changes it to a path without grouping it) -- Ta-Daaah!

There's another....well now there are a few ways to get character or symbols or glyphs into Inkscape. But the steps above are probably the easiest.